The Green Party is furious after Speaker Lockwood Smith refused special funding for deaf MP Mojo Mathers in Parliament, and says the move amounts to discrimination.
Ms Mathers currently uses an electronic notetaker, which provides an instant transcript of what is being said in the House, to participate in Parliament.
However, Ms Mathers told media this afternoon that Dr Smith had told her she would have to fund the notetaker from her MP support budget, or that the party would have to fund it.
Yes; on the face of it, it sounds like a bad judgment call from Lockwood Smith. But then you read this bit (our emphasis added):
However, the Speaker's office said Dr Smith and Parliamentary Services did not have the authority to approve the extra funding.
"He would have to go to the Parliamentary Service Commission, he'd have to go to the Government and ask for additional funding to do what she wants because its not part of the appropriation,'' a spokeswoman said.
Dr Smith would raise the issue at next month's Parliamentary Service Commission meeting.
There it is in a nutshell. Lockwood Smith has declined the funding because he would have to break the rules he himself administers to do so. It would appear that by raising the issue at the next meeting of the Parliamentary Service Commission he is doing the right thing, even though the timing of it might not be to the Greens' liking.
But the rules that Mr Speaker administers are there for a reason, and in our considered opinion he is following the right process. After all, don't we get all antsy when politicians simply change a law because it doesn't suit them?
22 comments:
Mojo made it known to the Parliamentary Service what her requirements for participation in House debate were almost from the day she was elected.
If it is the case that it would require Parliamentary Service Commission approval, it is shameful that the Parliamentary Service and the Speaker have sat on their hands all this time and only now notified her that it would require specific approval from the PSC.
After all, the PSC is actually just a collection of MPs appointed by the various parties, and could have been urgently convened to address this long before now, given that they are all at Parliament anyway.
So Toad; you're acknowledging that Smith can't act unilaterally on this then, and that to do so would breach PS rules?
I have no sympathy.
The lady chose to participate despite her deficiency in communication ability.
The Reds chose to include her also despite that handicap.
They knew at the time what equipment was provided and whether it is suitable.
They should pay for any extra equipment in the same way individual parliamentarians pay for dentures, glass eyes etc.
No KS, what toad is saying, I guess, is that Smith, as the chair of the PSC, could have sorted this out at its last meeting, or failing that, urgently convened to sort it out before Smith talked to medkia
This is how it works in the real world!
The Greens put her on the list, the Greens are responsible for the tool she needs to have to do her job.
Like everywhere else.
Regards
I agree with Tinman and Anon. The Greens are like their supporters hands out, political correctness, bugger the costs.
Smith is a miserable, sniveling sh*t.
He hadn't noticed that there was a deaf MP in the House?
Then he's stupid as well.
The Greens knew she was deaf when they selected her, wouldn't it have been sensible to sort this cost out before they completed the selection?
Cadwallader
I agree with Tinman, anonymous Regards, and Baxter.
As Cadwallader said the Greens knew of her impediments and should have made application to Parliamentary Services even then I think it is a cost that should be met by the Greens.
And Winston's offering to contribute!?
Hope he has enough left over to purchase a pissed/slurred translator for the benefit of those trying to work out what he's on about.
Well said Suz; the old bugger was almost incoherent at times today, especially when he was refrring to the purchaser of the Westpac farms (formerly owned by the Crafars) as "Shanghai Penguin".
And if he paid back the $158k that he owed Parliamentary Services, they'd be able to sort Mojo out!
The Parliamentary Services Commission has known about Mojo's requirements since the day she was voted in. Their tardiness in providing her with what she needs in order to take part in the activities of the House is shameful, especially given that Mojo is the test case for deaf people in New Zealand, so disadvantaged in every day life. Lockwood Smith has stuffed up the perfect opportunity to show thoughtfulness and compassion. That's a fail, Smith, and a disgrace.
Oh Anon; you've been seduced by the Greens' publicity machine; the requisite technology has already been provided to Mojo Mathers. The issue at hand is who pays, and Smith cannot make that decision himself.
Winston offers to contribute to Mojo's needs and all you WPDS (Winston Peters Derangement Syndrome) sufferers can do is smear him with intimations that he was drunk!
You are sick people. And Christians too (so you say!!!)
Sickos!
Oh, Keeping Stock. You have been seduced by your own ignorance. The cost is attached to the personnel required to drive the technology.
Smith cannot make the decision by himself? He's had weeks and weeks to get it sorted - is he that hopeless??
I think that question answers itself.
Lockwood Smith's excuse for his outrageous refusal to ensure that Mojo Mathers is enabled to perform her constitutional duties as an MP? "Its not within the appropriation", and he needs the permission of the Parliamentary Services Commission to approve it. Both of these excuses are pure bullshit.
The detailed appropriation for the Office of the Clerk - the body responsible for providing secretarial services to the House, Hansard, and in-House translation services - is here [PDF]. The relevant appropriation is "Secretariat Services for the House of Representatives", and its scope is defined as:
This appropriation is limited to the provision to the House of Representatives of professional advice and services designed to assist the House in the fulfilment of its constitutional functions, and enabling participation in, and understanding of, parliamentary proceedings.
(Emphasis added).
Making sure that a deaf MP can participate fully and fulfil her constitutional duties would seem to be covered by that. Maori MPs are - the official interpreter is funded out of that appropriation.
So what about the Parliamentary Services Commission? That's to advice the Speaker on the provision of services to Members (such as communications services, offices, that sort of thing) under the Parliamentary Services Act. But this isn't a private service to an MP, its a public service to our country, and required by law. But even if you accept that this is a private service, it still doesn't wash - because a) the Parliamentary Services Commission currently consists of only three people (the Leader of the House, Leader of the Opposition, and the Speaker himself); and b) they've known about this problem for three months. If Lockwood couldn't organise a meeting of only three people in that time to sort this out, then it is his priorities at fault, not "bureaucracy".
Finally, there's the obvious counterfactual: would this be happening if Mathers was a National MP? And I think we all know that the answer would be "no". If it was one of his colleagues, Smith would have prioritised handling it and ensured there was a solution in place to ensure participation on the first day (and issued a press release crowing about Parliament's new accessibility). But because she's a Green, its just not a priority. The fault is entirely Lockwood's, and he deserves every bit of stick he is getting for it.
Basically, the story is that they were 1 meeting late in getting something done.
Why exactly a technical "who pays for it" argument for the lowest ranked person in a minor opposition party should be massive priority is beyond me.
It's almost like people think that Lockwood has nothing else to do.
It'll be sorted out in a month. It's just taking a little longer than the Greens have decided it should, so they're making a massive fuss over it - because they can.
The whole issue is a load of crap. The Green party loves spending other peoples money on pointless exercises. Sure let Mojo participate in parliament but dont expect any preferential treatment because of her disability. The greens chose her as a candidate and put her on the list. She was not voted in as an electorate MP so if the Greens want her they should pay for any special equipment that is needed. In other words stop wasting the taxpayers money.
KS - from a 'real politic' point of view the Greens are beyond dumb.
Lockwood Smith has been reasonable widely acknowledged as an effective Speaker of the House.
By going 'nuclear' on this issue today the Greens have just shat all over the Speaker and Parliamentary Services staff who have been trying to assist them.
All for a couple of days publicity and getting what they want without paying.
The price they will pay is they will not be trusted by the Speaker or Parliamentary Services for the rest of this term, and probably longer in the case of the bureaucracy.
It is going to be a very high price to pay for them - but clearly they are so DUMB that they don't realize one of the major rules of life is what goes round comes round.
I look forward in coming months to the Speaker quietly slapping them down, and hearing ever increasing grizzles that they aren't getting the help they need.
Poor little muppets - they ran such a professional election campaign and almost managed to present themselves as credible. First little test of the new Parliament and they come right out with dumb. Still, as the saying goes 'stupid is as stupid does'
Ross is proving himself as antediluvian as Lockwood Smith, revealing his blind support for the Nats, his disdain for people with disabilities and his lack of political nous all in one post.
The Greens have exposed Smith as arrogant and ill-prepared and Ross believes they shouldn't have spoken up because Lockie will be'mean' to them from now on - thank God the Greens aren't so cowed by bullying as to not defend their deaf associate.
Seems Ross, were he in the same position, would go all quiet for fear of losing his priviledges.
Pussy.
Anon as 7:41am
I have spend most of my career working in or around bureaucracies. So I can tell you a few things that I know for sure:
1. Parliamentary Services is staffed by professional, competent, hardworking, compassionate and caring people
2. They will have been working very hard for many months to try and get everything right for Mojo Mathers so that she can contribute fully in Parliament
3. Like most thinking New Zealanders (including myself) they will be very happy Mojo is in Parliament, view it as a success, and a step forward for our democracy. They will also admire her courage for doing this.
4. There will have been some technical hitches and hold ups that they are trying very hard to resolve
5. There will be some policy issues around the cost of this extra service that they will be working very hard to resolve
So, to summarise - dedicated, competent and professional people will have been working hard for months to meet Mojo Mathers needs, and these people have just been shat on by a grandstanding Green Party.
If you think Lockwood Smith has had much to do with it at all, that just displays your lack of understanding of how the system works.
Now, I know some of you think you can get through life by screaming and yelling at everyone to get what you want in life, when you want it, but my observation is it is self defeating.
If you treat people nicely and right, then generally they will respond in kind, within the limitations and restrictions of policies, laws and rules.
The Greens have not treated people who have been helping them for months right this week. And because of that they will pay a long term price. That is human nature.
If you don't understand this is how life works then you can join them in the ranks of the dumb.
The Greens have criticised Lockwood Smith, quite rightly.
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